Elemental Concept expands to Australia with CX model

Elemental Concept has expanded into Australia, bringing its Causal CX approach to the market.

The launch follows growth after the consultancy's 2025 acquisition of New Zealand firm Purple Shirt. Elemental Concept now operates across the UK, Germany, New Zealand, Southeast Asia and Australia.

Australia is the latest step in a wider Asia-Pacific push for the London-founded strategy and technology consultancy. Steve Alexander, Chief Executive Officer for APAC, will oversee the regional business, supported by Blake Lough, Chief Experience Officer, and Chris Green, Head of Strategy and Innovation.

At the centre of the expansion is Causal CX, which Elemental Concept describes as a customer experience method based on Clayton Christensen's Jobs to Be Done research. Rather than focusing first on touchpoints, journeys or satisfaction measures, the approach starts by examining what drives a customer to choose, stay with or leave a company.

The firm is entering a consulting market it values at AUD $40.8 billion. It argues that clients in Australia are shifting away from broad-based advisers towards specialist firms focused on defined problems.

That pitch reflects a wider debate in customer experience work. Companies have spent heavily on redesigning journeys and tracking sentiment, often struggling to link those efforts to revenue, retention or market share. Elemental Concept is positioning itself against larger consulting groups by arguing that many programmes begin too late, after the customer's core decision has already been shaped.

Research cited by the consultancy points to a deteriorating backdrop for brands across the region. According to Forrester's 2025 Global CX Index, 37% of brands in Australia, Singapore and India saw their customer experience quality decline, while 5% improved.

Different pitch

The Australian launch also marks the first international rollout of Causal CX. Rather than leading with scale, Elemental Concept is presenting the method as its main point of difference in a market dominated by larger firms.

"We're not going into Australia with a bigger team or a longer client list than the big four - we're going in with a different argument: that most CX investment fails because nobody agreed on what actually drives the customer's decision in the first place. That's a harder sell, but it's the only one that changes outcomes. We'd rather win three clients who believe that than thirty who want another journey map," said Bimal Shah, Chief Executive Officer and Founder of Elemental Concept.

The Australian practice will cover four areas: Strategy, Human-Centred Experience Design, Technology & Engineering, and Data, Analytics & AI. That mirrors the structure already used in other markets.

The move builds on work the business has already carried out in the Asia-Pacific region. Elemental Concept cited assignments with Milford Asset Management, ANZ Wealth Management, Serko and Foodstuffs New Zealand as examples of its regional track record.

Those references may matter as the consultancy seeks to establish itself in Australia, where buyers often expect evidence of delivery in nearby markets before appointing newer entrants. By linking the launch to existing work in New Zealand and the broader region, Elemental Concept is seeking to show it is not entering from scratch.

Regional role

Chris Green, who is based in Australia, has a central role in shaping the offer in the new market. His remit covers strategy and innovation, and that function is central to the consultancy's effort to challenge more established approaches to customer experience consulting.

One of the core arguments behind the launch is that improving a service journey does not necessarily address the reason a customer made a choice in the first place. That distinction underpins the consultancy's effort to frame customer experience as a commercial decision problem rather than a design exercise alone.

"You can make a broken journey beautiful and still lose the customer, because you never worked out what was driving their choice in the first place. That's not a CX problem, it's a starting-point problem. Causal CX starts with the decision to choose a company, product or service - and works backwards from that," said Green.

Founded in 2016, Elemental Concept has grown through a mix of international expansion and acquisition. The addition of Australia gives the company another base in a region where it already has operations and clients, and where it is now testing whether a narrower, decision-led customer experience model can win business from larger consulting rivals.